Media Alert: The GOP Jobs Plan Won't Create Jobs

Yesterday, the Senate Republicans blocked the Democrats' modest jobs bill that would have "saved or created hundreds of thousands of jobs through state aid, boosting teachers, police officers, and firefighters" and would have been paid for by "a 0.5% surtax on millionaires and billionaires."

OK, so what do the Republicans propose instead, I mean, when they are not too busy re-fighting the culture wars with attempts to further restrict women's reproductive rights?

The Republican plan consists of nothing more than the same tired, recycled policy ideas that will do nothing to stimulate the economy or help stem unemployment. We all know the litany by now:  less federal regulation, more tax cuts, and a balanced budget amendment.

It is obvious to anyone paying attention that the Republican leadership is simply not serious about job creation.  But the mainstream media refuses to expose the vacuity of the GOP's efforts.  Rather than doing some real reporting -- to determine whether Republican claims about their proposals have any validity -- they merely report about Democrat and Republican "competing" jobs plans.

Greg Sargent has been hammering the media for failing to aggressively report on the Republican plan.  As he complains, major news organizations are are not attempting to answer a critical question that is "at the heart of our politics," namely:  "are both parties making a serious and legitimate contribution to the debate over what to do about a severe national crisis that’s causing suffering among millions and millions of Americans? Or is only one party making a real contribution to that debate?"

The Washington Post finally did some fact-checking and, lo and behold, determined that the GOP claim that their plan would create five million jobs is "ludicrous" and that actually it "would do little to create jobs in the near future."

It is far past time for the rest of the mainstream media to subject the GOP "plan" to similar scrutiny.